"Ungardening" continues

Back in London I'm now seriously into garden removal rather than creation... to make space for the conservatory we plan to build in the autumn. As I'll be spending five weeks in France this summer, time is short for the preparation I need to do in London. Despite being told about the bad weather here whilst I was away, I returned to find quite a few of my plants - particularly the strawberries I'd grown from runners - had expired, by the look of them from lack of water!

This week I've laid my first bit of paving - just a small area, but a lot of work involved! The objective was to make room for a storage box which used to be kept where one of the conservatory walls will go. The task involved first cleaning and clearing the area, then levelling, tamping down, laying sand - before the paviors could be laid. Clearing the area meant sacrificing one of my three redcurrant bushes, and another will have to go later. I've had to start lifting paviors too from the paths which will disappear into the conservatory, in order to build the new areas. Instead of two storage boxes at opposite ends of the garden, I now have them next to each other on the newly-extended piece of paving. Clearing them out and cleaning them revealed a lot of duplicated garden chemicals, and a huge store of seed trays and plant pots, very few of which I ever use. So ... to freecycle they went! I am pleased that they have gone to a local community garden project. They've also had (for repair) my old garden fork - the handle of which snapped in two while I was digging out the redcurrant bush!

Before and after - looking west

Before and after - looking east

The attempt to layer the loganberry to produce a new plant has failed; while I was away it grew very rapidly and got top-heavy, then pulled out of the compost so has failed to root. It's too late in the season to do anything about it now, so I've decided not to waste time trying any more transplanting or rooting existing stock - I will buy new plants instead. This applies to the loganberry and bay tree; potentially also the blackberry, although there is one blackberry plant which may be rooted far enough outside the planned building to survive. I think the myrtle will just have to go; it's too big a plant for what will be left of the garden. Perhaps I'll replace it with a dwarf variety which could go in the high planter.

Here's how the back garden looks at the moment:

Still a long way to go!